Checking in With Paul LePage

Our Governor has been trying to behave recently. Not many headlines coming out of Augusta these days. Of course we all know that that Governor is just holding his breath to see if he is going to hold his majority in the state legislature. If he does then one assumes that he will be doubling down on his Conservative agenda.

Last weekend LePage announced that he was pulling out of the National Governors Association because he did not feel Maine got enough out of the sixty thousand dollars that we paid in dues.

On first blush this is sure to be a popular move. After all public officials using zero based budgeting and having to justify any expense is a good move in tight economic times.

My concern, and I am probably in the minority on this, was when I found out that LePage will still attend the yearly meeting in which the Governors Association meets with the President and the Cabinet. LePage did say he planned to attend that meeting but not any other meetings which he described as " too touchy feely and politically correct for him."

I sympathize with his feelings. I have found often that the more people that are in a meeting the less gets done. However a representative from the NGA has said that all Governors are considered members even if they do not pay dues. In short LePage can attend or not attend these meetings irrespective of if we as a state pay our dues.

For years and years the United States has not paid dues to the United Nations. I do not have any opinion or care what some third world country thinks of us negating our financial responsibility to the United Nations. I do wonder how LePage's and his happy "We are open for business attitude" clashes with the fact that we plan to enjoy services as a State while negating to pay our financial dues.

If one took that to the extreme would that be different than a tax payer saying he was not paying taxes because he lived in the woods, never ventured to town and did not get enough out of it.

I think that the Governor should stop trying to make cheap political points and act responsibly. Either quit the group and attend no meetings at all or pay the dues and attend.